#91 - No PT?

Normally I wouldn't be writing at this time of the morning. However, we heard a phrase spoken for the first time which warmed our hearts: "PT is cancelled today." We had a lot of rain here, and my guess is that the PT field across the street is just too wet. What a shame.

...

It is now mid-morning, and I've finished shooting at the range. I qualified again today (even though my magazine was short rounds), so now I will likely be left alone for the rest of the afternoon.

We've been eating nothing but MREs out in the field, and everyone is becoming tired of them. Most of the time we aren't given enough time to use the MRE heaters, so most of the entrees aren't very unappetizing eaten cold. I usually just end up consuming the crackers or wheat bread with peanut butter or cheese, some variety of cookie, pound cake or Ranger bar (kind of a very dry coconut macaroon). I was disappointed to discover that far less fruit is offered in these newer MREs than the old variety. Also, food is no longer freeze-dried, so you don't have to add water to the rare pears or peaches, if you can get them. I usually eat 1/2 or 1/3 of my MRE and give the rest of it away. This has apparently earned my some points with some of the males in my platoon.

It is another overcast morning with intermittent rain, but at least the temperature isn't very cold. Everyone is filthy and covered with wet sand. There doesn't seem to be much topsoil here on the ranges - just sand of varying colors, and pine - mostly longleaf and loblolly from what I can tell. There was a little critter running around in my line of fire on the range earlier, a black squirrel, the type of which I have never seen before (no I didn't fire at him). There are reportedly some feral cats also roaming around Fort Jackson, so he already has other dangers to look out for.

Well, this will be another long day on the range. I'm not sure what we'll be doing for the next few days, though I know our first "real" PT test is coming up, maybe Friday or Saturday. I may try to participate anyway, even though I'm supposed to be on profile. I would like to see exactly where I'm at on the two mile run.